12MB PDF - Association for Mexican Cave Studies

the rope. What John had been tryingto tell uS became obvious. He hadreached a small ledge and judgingthe main line as being too short,he tied on the 150 foot (45 meter)Bluewater. After he got off ropeon the bottom, the rope apparentlyshifted making it impossible for meto get anything but my toes on theledge. I had a brief conversationwith John, and we decided to tryagain tomorrow. I switched over toascend. We all made our way backto the cold surface air.The sumpAfter a much needed day off, wefinally bottomed Buque on Thursday.We started by switching all our misplacedropes. A few paces from thebottom of The 337 we encountered a 5meter flows tone climbdown. We foundit safest to perform one precariousfriction move in the middle of theclimb with assistance from a partner.Just beyond the climbdown , we encounteredanother large dome pit,The 200.After setting a 3/8 inch boltnear the lip, we backed up a 300foot (90 meter) Bluewater to a solutionhole. Dave rapelled. Atthe bottom, confronted with a deepplunge pool, he clawed his way alongthe wall and squeezed through a narrowcrack. Dave used the excessrope to pull the rest of us in.Then, tied off, we used the samerope to drop two 5 meter slopingflowstone pitches. Shortly after,we found two overhung cascade drops.To speed things up, only John andI continued. The horizontal section,Main Street, that followedproved to be a real energy drainer.The dynamic wet canyon containedmany short climbdowns and a multitudeof potholes and canals.On reaching the final pitch,we luckily found a tie-off pointnear the lip. Barring cutting or along walk back to the truck, thiswas our last rope and had to be longenough. John began his descent.Moments later, two whistle blastsechoed indicating that both John andthe rope made it to the bottom. Iracked in, then rappelled down therope. Soon, I reached walking passage,with a plunge pool below me.I got off rope and wandered 100 metersdown a large muddy gallery.Not finding John, I returned to thepit. He was at the pool edge 6 metersbelow me, having made his waythrough the low, wet sump passageclearing debris as he went. By driftingthrough a short stretch with hisear in the water he popped up thethe Terminal Sump Room.The sump measured 2 meters wideby 0.7 meters in height. Ibe clearsilt-free water would make it a gooddive. Paddling and climbing our wayback up Main Street, we were sloweddown by one climb. John waded outinto the pool up to his neck. Climbingup onto his shoulders, I pulled myselfup over the lip of the drop.Wedging myself into a pothole I lowereda pack strap to John and he pulledhimself out. On joining the others,we all started the arduous trekto the surface.The surveyAfter a well deserved R&R day,we joyfully made our way through anow totally rigged cave. We slungan etrier on the climbdown that hadgiven John and me trouble. Then toentertain my friends, I dropped mycarbide lamp in a 3 meter deep pool.With Dave's large waterproof lamp inhand, I hyperventilated and dove. Igrasped it with my finger tips only73